The Grammy Awards have given its Best New Artist award to some real clunkers (cough*Milli Vanilli*cough). In fact, the award is known for, year after year, going to an artist that the public then abandons.

But these years later, it appears the academy got it right when it chose Marc Cohn in 1992, even though the public interest sharply waned after his 1991 self-titled debut disc went platinum.

Cohn showed with his show Friday at Musikfest Café at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem just how much the public has missed, and continues to miss.

Marc Cohn at Musikfest Cafe

His rich, soulful voice and wonderful songwriting were something to behold and, with an especially sympathetic guitarist and keyboard player adding to his piano, something to hear.

More than anything else, the 13 songs he played in a 95-minute performance showed Cohn is a master of the evocative – tapping feelings fresh or forgotten, even from songs of other people. (He played songs from his most recent disc, the 2010 album of cover songs “Listening Booth: 1970).

From the gentle and touching opening “From the Station” from his sophomore disc, 1993’s “The Rainy Season,” Cohn’s set was filled with feeling – telling in the fact that it spanned all the albums in his career.

But clearly that first album was a hit for a reason. The songs he played from it were uniformly good.

“Ghost Train,” the second of the night, got cheers from the disappointingly small (something above 200 people) crowd. And with good reason: his voice went from a rasp to a rumble, ending with a strong, loud note. “Perfect Love,” with him on guitar, was quiet, yet his voice and playing funky and soulful.

Cohn stopped “29 Ways,” with opening act Rebecca Pidgeon on backing vocals, early in the song to tell his band to play a new arrangement of the song “slower and funkier … I just realized it’s a lot of words.” And “Silver Thunderbird,” a touching memory of his father regaining youth behind the wheel of a hot car, finished with a falsetto that drew whoops.

And his biggest hit, “Walking in Memphis,” was transcendent: far more stripped down – virtually just his piano and voice at most points – and slower. Cohn seem enrapt, and the audience pin-drop quiet, as he segued into Al Green’s “Take Me to the River in the middle and wailed the lyric “Ma’am I am tonight!”

But the songs from his other discs also were strong. “Healing Hands” from 1998’s “Burning the Daze,” with Pidgeon again backing him, stabbed the soul. “Listening to Levon” from his latest album of originals, 2007’s “Join The Parade,” sounded like The Band of the title’s Levon Helm, with swirling organ.

The three songs from “Listening Booth” were equally good. The Box Tops’ “The Letter” was slow and bluesy. Paul Simon’s “The Only Living Boy in New York,” with his keyboard player taking over the piano while Cohn stood, grabbing the mic with both hands, his eyes closed, singing high falsetto that soared off.

And then a 10-minute cover of Van Morrison’s “Into The Mystic,” with which he closed the main set, drifting into Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Tupelo Honey” and Elton John’s “Honky Cat,” his players especially sympathetic.

For the encore, after responding to the usual joker calling for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” by actually starting to play it, Cohn played three songs that displayed the power of his career.

First, “True Companion,” the second-best-loved song from that first album, bold and strong, unlike the frailty of the original, but with the same message of undying love. And then two from those albums after the public moved on.

“The Things We’ve Handed Down,” a heart-wrenching prayer for an expected child – Friday was the 22nd birthday of his son Max – was devastating. And out with “One Safe Place,” Cohn on guitar, stomping his foot as he strummed and whispered the lyrics; his keyboard player on tinkling, chiming piano. It was simply beautiful.

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.